A Houston man has been charged with trying to plant explosives at the statue of Confederate officer Richard Dowling in Hermann Park, federal officials said Monday.

Andrew Schneck, 25, who was released from probation early last year after being convicted in 2015 of storing explosives, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court, Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez said in a statement Monday.

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Schneck was arrested Saturday night after a Houston park ranger spotted him kneeling in bushes in front of the Dowling monument in the park, Martinez said.

Schneck was holding two small boxes that included duct tape and wires.

When confronted Saturday night in the park, he tried to drink some of the liquid explosives but spit it out, officials said.

Federal authorities said one of the tubes contained nitgroglycerin and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, HMTD, a "highly explosive compound" used as a primary explosive. Nitroclycerin, in its purest form, is a contact explosive.

"ln its undiluted form, [nitroglycerin] is one of the world's most powerful explosives," according to the statement.

Schneck was arrested about 11 p.m. Saturday in the park, a source said, following a day of protests that drew hundreds of people to Sam Houston Park protesting a Spirit of the Confederacy statue. The Saturday event also drew counter-protesters.

The details emerged as authorities on Monday evacuated residents near a home owned by Schneck's parents, in a neighborhood six blocks north of Rice University.

Residents living on Albans Road, between Hazard and Wilton streets, were urged 10 a.m. to leave their homes, according to an emergency alert from the city of Houston.

Decision was made "out of an abundance of caution," said Larry Satterwhite, an assistant Houston police chief who oversees the Homeland Security Command.

The alert warned residents that disposing of the material could cause loud noises, smoke and damage to nearby property.

The source of the commotion was a single house at 2025 Albans, according to the Houston Police Department.

Investigators were in and out the house all morning. By 9:15 a.m., FBI agents had set up a blue tent on the front lawn, presumably to review evidence. An agent wheeled a large plastic bin labeled "sample collection" toward the roped-off house.

Satterwhite said "significant hazardous materials" were found at the home, but didn't say what type they were.

"It's a lot," he said. "There's a significant amount of material in them ... Some very hazardous materials were found."

Law enforcement agents are planning controlled detonations of the materials, Satterwhite said. He added a utility company cut off gas service before the blasts, which will likely happen Monday afternoon.

Neither Satterwhite nor FBI officials would confirm whether a suspect was in custody, in connection with the hazardous materials. They also would not address if the scene is related to a possible bomb threat to a Confederate statue in nearby Hermann Park.

When asked whether authorities had used robots and haz-mat suits, Satterwhite replied, "We've used it all."

The assistant police chief said there was no threat to the public outside of the controlled area.

"We have this under control," Satterwhite said, adding that authorities are "really confident this is contained."

The searches Monday followed an all-night "enforcement operation" led by the FBI.Deron Ogletree, an assistant special-agent-in-charge in the FBI's Houston office, said experts came in from the national training center at Quantico, Virginia, as well as other FBI offices in Dallas and New Orleans.

"We've been working long hours since Saturday evening," Ogletree said, refusing to share any more information.

Vehicles with the FBI, the Houston Police Department and the Houston Fire Department were in the 2000 block of Albans Monday morning to assist the federal agency.

Federal agents have raided 2025 Albans before. In 2013, a multi-agency team stormed the home owned by Houston art community staple Cecily E. Horton, and her husband, Andrew Schneck. Agents also searched a Memorial-area homed then owned by the couple and a condo in Bryan.

Officials said at the time that the couple's 22-year-old Andrew Cecil Earhart Schneck was the focus of the law enforcement interest. A source initially said the raid was sparked by chemicals that could be used to make nerve gas or tear gas.

After combing through all three scenes, the FBI found a military-grade explosive called picric acid at the Memorial area home on Fall River.

The following year, the younger Schneck was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty in federal court to knowingly storing explosives. In 2016, a judge released him from probation ahead of schedule.

Shauna Dunlap, special agent with the Houston office of the FBI, confirmed the agency was leading the operation, but also declined to provide further information.

The Dowling statue, built in 1905, honors Richard William Dowling, who served as a Civil War lieutenant for the Confederacy.

Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle

Dowling was a Houston businessman before enlisting. The city named Dowling Street in his honor until changing its name to Emancipation Avenue earlier this year. The statue, made of marble, was the first publicly financed monument in Houston, according to the city's website.

The debate over its placement has spanned years, though a 1958 Houston Chronicle article acknowledged that "there probably are only a few Houstonians who have more than a hazy idea about Dick Dowling's contribution to Texas history."

"Shouldn't the city of his adoption revere the memory of such a daring young man and his exploits sufficiently to display the statue and keep it in good repair?" a front-page piece asked.

Noted Houston defense attorney Dick DeGuerin lives near the home where the searches continued Monday. He said a fire captain told him that he and his wife, who has a broken knee, were among those who should evacuate their home.

"They just told us to evacuate, and they told us it's pretty bad," DeGuerin said.

He said the law enforcement response Monday was "an order of magnitude" greater than the response to the hazmat situation at the same house in 2013.

In that instance, DeGuerin said authorities learned that a young man who lives there with his parents had ordered explosive materials over the internet.

Travis Broesche, another neighbor, said he wasn't too concerned by the raid.

"I'm appreciative of law enforcement," said Broesche, adding that this investigation has lasted much longer than the 2013 raid.

One friend who knew Schneck from their years together at Memorial High School in Spring Branch ISD described him as an awkward loner who never had a girlfriend and seemed to struggle with social interactions.

"I can't even think of a single friend he had, to be perfectly honest," he said.

He was nicknamed Ace from his initials.

"None of this is surprising," the former classmate added. "He seems a bit disconnected from reality."

During their senior year of high school, according to Schneck's classmate, the awkward teen wrote a "manifesto" dedicated to some of the school's popular girls, decrying how their boyfriends treated them and saying he could have done better.

After high school graduation in 2010, the two lost touch and Schneck's classmate didn't hear news of him again until news outlets started reaching out for comment in the aftermath of the 2014 case.